IT'S A WRAP!

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Our last port of call was Ketchikan, the southern most town in Alaska, closer to Seattle than Anchorage. Ketchikan is a true fishing port, home of "The Deadliest Cacth" This was our one real rainy day of the whole 24. We walked around the town for a short time. This was also the most cars/traffic we saw. I'd love to have this traffic every day! This is the home of the totem poles, we saw a couple in town, but needed to take a short ride to see the real village, etc. Unfortunately we did not have enough time for that. We had booked a tour on a high speed catamaran to go to the Misty Fjords National Monument. It's called a national monument because it's not easily accessible. This was another unbelievable sight. Even the rain let up for us so we could have a great view. The mountains are spectacular and go right into the ocean. No animals because it's all rock, little vegetation and very steep. This was another view of Alaska. Each area has it's own uniqueness and has to be seen to really apreciate.
We had one last day at sea before we docked at our final port of call, Vancouver, BC. We had a day to kill before our flight and took a 4 hour city tour, I think Cathy mentions it below.

Below is a few musings from Cathy that she had emailed and I took the liberty of copying. She is so much better at writing than I am.

Well, we arrived in the lower 48 this morning. After we arrived in Vancouver yesterday, we spent a day touring the city. It is HUGE! It is also really nice. We went to the Farmers market on Granville Island, you could spend a whole day there. It was pretty cool. We saw a few highlights of the city and went to the airport to wait for our flight for 4 hours. Off we went to Seattle, and then we all flew home with our friends at Jet Blue!!

A few things that Iwe observed while in Alaska. Most people are thin and fit that live there. They work very hard, and there food is SOOO expensive they must not buy much junk food. A bag of Lays is $7, that's right! Most food in the grocery store is double what we pay. A gallon of milk is $6.They do eat a lot of fish, which most of them will catch themselves, especially during Salmon season. They're free and easy to get on your own, so why buy it. Most still hunt for moose, caribou, and sheep also. They grow there vegie gardens, and are all pretty much survivalists. They don't waste, and they respect nature.

Most of them look forward to the winter coming, yes that is right, they look forward to it!

The sea air does not feel salty like it does when you go to the beach here. We think it is because of so much mountain and glacier run off, that maybe there ocean water is less salty then ours.

Their gas prices are higher then ours, which I thought was weird since the oil comes from there. The cost is anywhere from $4.20 a gallon up North to almost $5.00 in southern Alaska. Go figure!

We all felt that Alaska reminded us all a bit of Hawaii. The mountains go right down to the ocean in both places. The trees are so lush green, and the flowers are just vibrant and huge!

Many places only get about the same amount of snow that we get, it just has way less moisture and packs down. The kids can't make snowballs or snowmen, and the snow lasts a lot longer because of the cold temps. It also stays way cleaner because they don't have heavy car usage like we do. Don't get me wrong, many places do get tons of snow, but not in the Arctic circle area. They actually get less then us, but it becomes a frozen tundra.

We really liked Northern Alaska better, but there were some nice excursions from the cruise that we liked into the wilderness. If you just go to Alaska for a week on a cruise, it is nice, but you really need to go North by car and really see how it is. Just our opinions.

If you see bear, don't run, don't turn your back on them, gather together to try and look big, back away. If you see a moose, that puts it's head down, and the hairs on his neck stand up, scatter and run like hell, behind trees. NOTATION... don't confuse the two reactions!!!!

Well, this is the final Alaska chapter.

We hope you enjoyed our little blog. It's a short clip into our fabulous vacation. I have 2044 pictures, I'll be glad to share with you anytime.

Hope to see you all soon.

Trisha, John, Cathy & Neil (aka The Robermonts)

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Comments

[Anne Marie Darsney]

Thanks for sharing
The blog was great. Alaska is amazing. I think you should put all 2044 pictures into a slide show and have Bill sit down and watch them just as everyone had to watch his hiking slides so many times. : )